The unexpected fall of the Assad regime in Syria to a ragtag team of Islamist insurgents plunged the Middle East into a new era of uncertainty and opportunity while putting the world on notice that Donald Trump’s return to power was already uprooting decades of interventionist foreign policy in America.
Trump signaled the shift in dramatic fashion, yawning at the Islamist rebels’ final push into Damascus to oust Bashar al-Assad as not a battle America needed to fight and then using its aftermath to urge Russia, long a backer of Assad, to focus instead on seeking a peaceful end to its war against Ukraine.
“There should be an immediate ceasefire and negotiations should begin,” Trump implored Sunday as he pressed Russia and Ukraine in the aftermath of Assad’s stunning ouster.
“Too many lives are being so needlessly wasted, too many families destroyed, and if it keeps going, it can turn into something much bigger, and far worse. I know Vladimir well. This is his time to act. China can help. The World is waiting!”
Trump’s reaction stood in stark contrast to the man he is replacing, President Joe Biden, who declared he was communicating with the Islamist rebels who overthrew Assad and ordered massive air strikes against ISIS camps to make sure the terror group doesn’t advance in the country.
The strategy is laden with risks, as Biden noted himself.
“Make no mistake, some of the rebel groups that took down Assad have their own grim record of terrorism and human rights abuses,” Biden said Sunday. “We’ve taken note of statements by the leaders of these rebel groups in recent days and they’re saying the right things now. But as they take on greater responsibility, we will assess not just their words but their actions.”
Former CIA analyst and National Security Council chief of staff Fred Fleitz said Sunday that Trump was right to avoid direct intervention in Syria and to focus instead on stabilizing other ongoing conflicts.
"We have to stay out of this and Trump is exactly right. Trump's America first. That means a strong and decisive president that keeps our country out of new and unnecessary wars,” Fleitz told Newsmax.
Trump gave a matter of fact response when Assad fled Syria for Russia, seeing it as an opportunity in Eastern Europe far from the civil-war-torn Mideast nation.
“Assad is gone. He has fled his country. His protector, Russia, Russia, Russia, led by Vladimir Putin, was not interested in protecting him any longer,” Trump said. “There was no reason for Russia to be there in the first place. They lost all interest in Syria because of Ukraine, where close to 600,000 Russian soldiers lay wounded or dead, in a war that should never have started, and could go on forever,” he wrote in Truth Social on Sunday.
“Russia and Iran are in a weakened state right now, one because of Ukraine and a bad economy, the other because of Israel and its fighting success. Likewise, Zelenskyy and Ukraine would like to make a deal and stop the madness. They have ridiculously lost 400,000 soldiers, and many more civilians,” he added.
With just six weeks before the inauguration, Trump must navigate a turbulent world with a lame-duck U.S. president eager to continue his interventionist, world cop tactics from arming Ukraine to bombing ISIS.
Former Acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell implored Biden to stand down in Syria, noting he stood still for a year as the country’s situation deteriorated.
“The best thing @JoeBiden and @JakeSullivan46 can do now is let @realDonaldTrump and his team take over,” Grenell wrote on X. “The Biden-Blinken-Rice-Sullivan-Sherman team has done enough damage. Just get out of the way….”
